Page 58 of Third Wheel

“But you kicked me out.”

“Yeah, and I’m not asking you to pay for the part of the bill after?—”

His words were cut off as the phone was plucked out of her hand, making her jump and scream in surprise. Whirling around, she stared at Kincaid, who frowned back at her as he put the phone to his ear.

“Amy isn’t paying for shit, and you are not calling her again,” he said calmly. She couldn’t hear exactly what Jeremy was saying at that point, but she could hear the sound on the other side of the phone cutting off at the sound of Kincaid’s voice. “If you have any questions, you can direct them to me, Detective Kincaid Cavill, or to her lawyer, Alfred Johan of Addison, O’Shane, and Smith. Though, I would look him up before you made that move.”

Something muffled on the other side of the phone while Amy kept staring at Kincaid, frozen in place. She didn’t know what was worse—what Jeremy was demanding, the fact she knew she’d already been on her way to caving and paying the bill just to get him to leave her alone, or being humiliated at Kincaid knowing what an absolute dick nozzle she’d almost married.

But having him stand up for her was making her heart do all sorts of swoony, swoopy things that had nothing to do with his bare muscular chest and the grey sweatpants hanging off his hips.

“Yes, Icando that. You didn’t have Amy on any kind of lease, and technically, you did not give her the proper amount of time to move out. She could have made your life far more difficult than she has, and she chose not to. Out of deference to her, the rest of her friends have also chosen not to, but we can change ourminds at any time. I’m going to text you my number and Alfred’s number. Do not call her again.”

And with that, Kincaid hung up the phone and set it down on the counter, looking at her like he hadn’t just done the hottest thing ever. She kinda wanted to jump him right now, no matter how sore she was.

But that was for the club.

She was going to give him the best damn blow job the next time they got to the club.

“Want some help with breakfast?” he asked right as the oven beeped. It was done pre-heating.

“Sure, can you put the hashbrowns in the oven?” She’d already dumped the shredded potatoes into the dish, so there wasn’t much else to do.

“Yeah… mind if I add some peppers to it?” Amy hesitated. Kincaid raised his eyebrow at her. “I know you don’t like peppers in salad, but we haven’t done cooked peppers yet, and some of the things you don’t eat raw, you do eat cooked.”

She shrugged one shoulder a little weakly.

“Peppers are flavor rapists.”

“What?” Kincaid stared at her, a shocked laugh bubbling up out of him, which made her smile a little more authentic.

“If you put peppers in something, everything else just tastes like peppers. They completely take over. They’re flavor rapists.”

Putting his hand on the counter, Kincaid doubled over laughing, which made Amy huff. It wasn’tthatfunny. She knew it was a little weird, but… it was true. Seafood did the same thing. She’d gotten really good at picking things out of dishes she didn’t like, but some things, it didn’t matter if you picked them out because they left their flavor behind.

Flavor rapists.

Since he was still laughing, she decided to take charge of the situation.

“Here, I’ll divide it into two dishes so that you and Zach can have yours with pepper.” And it wouldn’t touch hers and spread the flavor. Her declaration just made Kincaid laugh even harder, which made it really hard for her not to giggle, but she didn’t want to encourage him.

Zach

Once again, Amy and Kincaid were in the kitchen together, laughing. Zach tried not to feel left out as he came down the hallway. Yeah, he was the one who loved to cook, but he just got up later than they both did. It wasn’t a big deal.

It hadn’t bothered him before today. Not really.

Probably because they hadn’t had a night together like last night. Last night, they’d all three been equally involved. Waking up alone while the two of them were in the kitchen…

He knew it didn’t mean anything, but he still couldn’t help but feel left out.

Maybe he needed to start getting up earlier.

Doubtful.

Strolling into the kitchen, he felt a little better when both Amy and Kincaid looked up to greet him and smiled. Kincaid was wearing his sweatpants and nothing else, like he usually did on weekend mornings, while Amy was in her navy-blue robe. He assumed she was still in the nightgown they’d put her to bed in. Her hair was tousled, and she was smiling, but there was something off about her, too.

“Good morning,” Kincaid said, moving over to slip his arm around Zach’s waist and give him a brief kiss. “Breakfast should be ready in about five minutes.”

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